Expert: Open homosexuality in military being 'rushed'

'It's like Pelosi saying we have to pass this bill so people can find out what's in it'

Center for Military Readiness President Elaine Donnelly said “gay” advocates are “rushing” Defense Secretary Robert Gates to implement the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy before he is able to certify properly that permitting open homosexuality will not harm the military.

“It’s like Nancy Pelosi saying we have to pass this health care bill so people can find out what’s in it,” Donnelly told WND.

According to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010,” President Obama, the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, have to certify that military readiness will not be impaired before proceeding with the new policy.

The trio must determine that allowing homosexuals to serve openly “is consistent with the standards of military readiness, military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention of the Armed Forces” before issuing their written certification. The new policy will be implemented 60 days after being certified.

“Gates is being pressured to do it immediately,” said Donnelly.

Donnelly suggested homosexuality advocates are trying to get the repeal certified and implemented before the public finds out how badly the military may be harmed.

“People still don’t know what this bill means. The new law was never really discussed. That has delayed public understanding of exactly how extreme these recommendations are, and how contrary to the Pentagon spin the actual findings were.” The Pentagon’s Comprehensive Review Working Group released its report on repealing DADT Nov. 30, 2010.

In Jan. 2010 the Military Culture Coalition, of which Donnelly is a leader, issued a report asking the CRWG to address difficulties that would be encountered by allowing homosexuals to serve in the military openly. MCC’s document featured a list of 23 bullet-pointed items, ranging from threats to unit cohesion and combat readiness, to the necessity of rewriting portions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to permit consensual sodomy, to determining how same-sex couples would be housed on military bases.

Three of these items address “mandatory diversity training” and “zero tolerance” for chaplains and personnel who disagree with open homosexuality for religious reasons. Critics warn that these policies could cripple morale and recruiting and drive as many as a quarter of the armed forces out of the service prematurely, especially soldiers serving in combat units. In the Pentagon report on repealing DADT, 32 percent of Marines said they would leave the service early because of open homosexuality, and an additional 16.2 percent said they would consider leaving early.

Defense Secretary Gates has stated publicly that the military will need as much as a year to train service members about how they will have to interact with homosexuals before issuing the certification.

“Gay” groups don’t want to wait that long.

“No later than the first quarter of 2011,” said Trevor Thomas of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which advocates for homosexuals serving in the military. “The Pentagon has had a year to put in place policy recommendations. They have produced their report. They will have ample time in the 60-day window directly after certification” to train the troops.

Thomas did not think issues such as retraining religious-minded soldiers would pose a serious problem.

“All of these have been addressed in the working group report, all the service chiefs said they’re very comfortable with handling problems with the chaplains. Mullen said we will deal with any hiccups that occur.”

Thomas acknowledged that SLDN had offered the Pentagon recommendations regarding the training programs, but the training plans have not been finalized yet.

“I presume the working group will start looking into all these issues as time moves forward,” Thomas told WND.

Another homosexual advocate organization, a University of California at Santa Barbara think tank called the Michael B. Palm Center, released a brief report Dec. 19 titled “MILITARY TRAINING CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED QUICKLY.”

“The forthcoming Pentagon request for a year to train all service members is not based on a reasonable assessment of what it takes to educate the troops,” according to the study.

“Whatever preparations are ultimately deemed necessary, the Pentagon ought to be able to pull them off faster than it did the implementation of DADT in 1994, which took approximately 40 days,” said the study.